While Europe has slashed its imports of piped Russian natural gas, it has bought some 13 million metric tons of liquefied natural gas (LNG) so far in 2023, little changed from a year ago, LSEG data showed on Tuesday.

Belgium, Spain and France have been the top buyers, the data showed, as Russia’s sales to Europe were little changed from 13.3 million tons a year earlier.

LNG is not subject to European sanctions imposed on Russian over the conflict in Ukraine and Europe has no short-term plan to include it.

However, Russia’s plans to expand its global LNG exports could be hampered by U.S.-imposed sanctions against its Arctic LNG 2 plant, which is scheduled to start production later this year.

The LSEG data showed that Belgium had imported 3.79 million tons of LNG from Novatek NVTK.MM-controlled Yamal LNG, Russia’s biggest LNG plant, as of Oct. 31.

Terminals in Spain received 3.64 million tons from Russia, while France imported 3.18 million tons.

Yamal LNG has exported 14.56 million tons of LNG this year, down 11.2% from a year earlier, including 11.54 million tons sent to Europe and 2.44 million to Asia.

Russia’s mid-sized Vysotsk plant, also controlled by Novatek, has shipped around 600,000 tons of LNG, while Gazprom’s GAZP.MM Portovaya plant has exported around 860,000 tons.

Russia’s January-October LNG exports to Asia fell to 10.4 million tons from 12.5 million a year earlier, with the Gazprom-controlled Sakhalin 2 plant shipping 7.9 million tons of it.

According to Reuters calculations, Russia exported 24 million tons of LNG between January and October, down 8% from 26 million a year earlier.

Russia’s LNG exports to Europe in 2022 soared by 20% to around 17 million tons.
Source: Reuters (Reporting by Oksana Kobzeva; writing by Vladimir Soldatkin; editing by Jason Neely)